The Misadventures of a Chocolate Box
by Shihanne
Summary: [DA02] "And so, such a confession from a maiden like me has to be done under the perfect conditions!"


"All ri~ght!"

Miyako faced the door of her high school with probably the most determination she'd had all week.

"Okay! We know the schedule today. Class, class, class, then I'm running all the way down to get this chocolate box delivered!" She held the chocolate box high in the air. "There's no way today's plan is going to fail!"

"So, Miyako, you're giving that to a boy today?" said a girl in her class who was walking by. Immediately Miyako's face froze.

"Ah...ah - "

"Who's the boy?" said another girl, narrowing her eyes. "Is it Ryouta? I had a feeling you had a thing for him..."

"No, must be Yuuki..."

"I'm sorry, but I have to go to class!" yelled Miyako at an almost incomprehensible speed, grabbing the chocolate box tightly, stuffing it back in her bag, and running into the school.

* * *

Unfortunately, Miyako could not concentrate at all in class. She kept glaring at her bag several times, for two reasons: one, because Poromon was in the bag (and she wasn't allowed to bring him to school), and two, because she kept having this paranoid fear that someone might steal the chocolate box for whatever reason.

"Inoue! Pay attention!"

"Yes!" said Miyako, snapping up soldier-like and holding a very stiff expression at the board, looking at her bag from the corner of her eye occasionally. The rest of the class stared at her.

_Miyako is unusually jumpy today,_ thought Poromon from the bag. _Not that I can blame her..._

* * *

Ken opened his shoe locker and dozens upon dozens of letters poured out (along with two boxes of what looked like obligation chocolate). He was so startled by the sight that he could only stand there staring for a few seconds.

"You're still popular with the girls!" said Wormmon. "It must be because of your good looks, Ken-chan..."

"I...don't really understand, but..." He started to pick up the letters on the floor. "It's like a scene from some girls' manga..."

He organized the letters and put them together.

"I feel really bad," he said. "Getting all these from girls, a lot of whom I barely know...but I don't have the time or the ability to respond to them all politely..."

"You don't have to accept their feelings if you're not interested in them," said Wormmon.

* * *

"Class is ended! Gotta hurry, gotta hurry, gotta hurry..."

Feeling insecure about the chocolate box if it stayed in her bag, Miyako pulled it out and ran.

"Hey!"

"Ah, sorry, Poromon!" She pulled Poromon out of her bag as well and, carrying both him and the box, ran around the school in the hopes of getting to the nearest station.

In the rush, she tripped over a rock and fell flat on her face. The chocolate box fell out of her hands, and a nearby boy picked it up.

"Ooh, Inoue," said the boy. "Didn't know you had a thing for me. Not that I can blame you, with my fabulous looks..." He pushed his face close to hers on the ground. "I'll gladly accept this chocolate from you, but I can't say I'll - "

"Gimme that!" Miyako grabbed the box out of his hands and started running again. "And I'm not into you, you creep!"

* * *

After arriving at the train station, Miyako sighed.

"But are you sure it's going to be okay, Miyako?" said Poromon. "This is a big thing..."

"No, no, I'm fine," said Miyako. "I've already spent months coming to terms with my beautiful feelings and the fact they exist, and why over the course of knowing him for four years I've come to appreciate him..." She closed her eyes and smiled dreamily. "And so, such a confession from a maiden like me has to be done under the perfect conditions!"

_Miyako stared at Ken with a slight blush on her face as she held out the chocolate box as cherry blossom petals went by and the wind blew their hair..._

"Miyako, you're about to miss the train."

"Ah!" Miyako looked at the closing doors of the train and scrambled in with Poromon in tow. Still carrying the box, she sighed again.

"Barely made it..."

She tried to nudge herself over to a pole, only to find out that the edge of her shirt was caught in the door.

* * *

"I keep forgetting where his school is..."

Finally running into the students around, she asked, "Does anyone know where Ichijouji Ken is?" But everyone around her seemed not to know.

She eventually got an answer, and it wasn't one she liked: "I think he just left."

"Ah...I..." She nodded. "Thank you!" And with that, she started running again.

"But Miyako, you don't even know where he's gone..."

"Anything is better than nothing!"

She finally saw a figure in the distance that seemed to resemble Ken. Feeling more alert, she started to chase after him, but he disappeared into the crowd.

"Ah, no - "

She continued running until she caught sight of him again, having to turn at least two corners, until she finally ran headfirst into him - and it was someone she didn't know.

"Oh! Ah, I'm sorry! You looked like someone I knew from behind..."

And leaving the very confused boy behind, she started running as fast as she could back to the school - only to trip and fall headfirst on her face again.

Poromon bounced close to her face on the ground and could barely make out a long and drawn-out "_nooooooooooo_".

"Hang in there, Miyako," said Poromon.

* * *

It was late and Miyako had been running all around the area in Tamachi, following practically nonexistent leads until she finally ended up at his house.

"You should have just come here to begin with, you're bound to meet him here anyway..."

"I would have rather done it at his school and taken care of it as soon as possible." She sighed and leaned against the wall. "Argh, this was supposed to be perfect...but this will do."

"Eh? Miyako-san?"

Miyako turned around to see Ken, clearly a bit startled to see her at the front of his house.

"Oh! You're finally here." She smiled the most confident smile she could muster and presented the chocolate box to him with both hands. Ken looked at the box; he didn't have to open it to see that it was the expensive chocolate kind, definitely not obligation chocolate.

"E-eh? But this is..."

"You give chocolates to the boy you like on Valentine's Day, right? So that's what I'm doing."

"Miyako, that's not very romantic," whispered Poromon.

"Oh, shut up," she whispered back.

She turned back to Ken. At this point, her voice was audibly shaking - _why am I getting nervous now? I rehearsed this for a week!_ - but she pushed on, determined to continue with her perfect confession.

"I got these for you. This is how I've decided I feel after four years. So if you're going to accept them, take them!"

She looked at Ken with the same determined face. Ken could feel it; she was putting up that tough front, but all of her emotions were probably raging inside of her waiting on his response.

"Miyako-san...me though..."

"If you're going to start going on that whole 'why me' thing, I'm not having any of it! I have my reasons, but are you going to accept it or not?"

Ken hesitated for a while - then smiled, closed his eyes, and took the box.

"Thank you, Miyako. I'll accept them."

"Ah...ah!"

Miyako's eyes widened and she began to open her mouth in a wide smile, but then caught herself as Ken started to walk into his house.

"Wait, do you mean the chocolate box or my feelings?"

Ken turned back towards Miyako and smiled.

"I'll accept them. Thank you, Miyako-san. Goodnight."

He walked in and closed the door.

"E-eh...but..."

"He accepted them," said Poromon.

"Oh, you stop it!" She turned back to the house, but after thinking about it, she smiled and walked back.

"Yeah, he accepted them. I'm happy..."

* * *

Ken went into his room and unloaded his bag. He spent about an hour reading all the love letters he'd gotten, but there wasn't much of substance he could really find; one of them had literally amounted to "I like you because you look cute when you study."

He got on his bed and looked at the two boxes of obligation chocolate, and then the one Miyako had given him. Slowly, he reached a hand to it, opened the box, took one out, and started to eat it.

"How is it, Ken-chan?" said Wormmon.

"Very good," said Ken. "It's high-quality chocolate. I can't believe Miyako got this..."

"So what are you going to do now?" said Wormmon.

Ken looked at Wormmon and smiled.

"Well, next month there's White Day," said Ken. "After all...isn't that the day when you give something to the girl you've accepted the feelings of?"


End file.
